Top 5 Quadient Alternatives for AP Automation

The automation of finance has evolved over several decades and is driven by the increasing complexity of financial markets. From early computerization to algorithmic trading, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, the industry is continuously growing. 

When it comes to accounts payable (AP) automation, companies are constantly seeking the best solutions to reduce manual workload, streamline financial operations, and ensure global compliance.

While Quadient (formerly known as BeanWorks) is a well-known player in the AP automation space, a few primary competitors offer innovative and robust solutions. 

Here, we examine the five best Quadient competitors, highlighting key features, pricing, and what sets them apart in the market.

• Tipalti
• AvidXchange
• BILL
• SAP Concur
• MineralTree

Top 5 Quadient AP Competitors 

#1) Tipalti

Tipalti is a global payables automation solution that streamlines the complexities of managing a business’s accounting lifecycle. The suite of solutions covers everything from procurement and expenses to automated invoice management, a self-service supplier portal, built-in compliance, reconciliation, and more. 

Founded in 2010, the brand serves thousands of global customers, helping companies automate financial processes, ensure compliance, reduce manual workload, and strengthen business relationships.

Key Features

• Invoice processing with OCR technology and custom approval workflows
• Integrated procurement and expenses with PO management and budget visibility
• Global payments with multi-currency support and various payment methods
• Real-time reporting, international tax compliance, and automated reconciliation
• Robust security with adherence to regulatory standards like GDPR, OFAC, and AML

Serviceable Market

Tipalti caters to a wide range of businesses in various markets. Whether you’re a tech company looking to scale globally or an e-commerce retailer that needs efficient payment processing, the AP management software is versatile.

Pricing

Tipalti offers a subscription-based pricing model, typically tailored to the specific needs and scale of the business. The pricing structure includes:

• A monthly subscription (base fee)
• Charges per transaction (varies on payment method and currency)
• A one-time fee for onboarding and integration

Custom pricing plans can be arranged for larger enterprises or businesses with specific needs.

#2) AvidXchange

Founded in 2000, AvidXchange is a leading provider of AP automation software solutions. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed to automate invoice processing, facilitate secure payments, and streamline AP workflows. 

AvidXchange is a user-friendly tool that leverages advanced technology to help a business reduce manual processes, improve accuracy, and enhance financial controls. The system is a Quadient Inspire alternative that works best for mid-market companies looking to automate existing workflows.

Key Features

• Automated data capture using OCR and customizable approval workflows
• Self-service vendor portal to submit invoices, update data, and check payment status
• Payment scheduling with support for methods like ACH, virtual card, and EFT
• API integrations with QuickBooks, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Sage 100, and NetSuite
• Advanced security measures, including encryption and secure data storage

Serviceable Market

AvidXchange serves a diverse range of industries, focusing on mid-market businesses. This includes everything from real estate firms managing a large volume of invoices to construction companies needing to streamline AP.

Pricing

AvidXchange offers a flexible pricing model tailored to the needs of mid-market businesses. This includes:

• A monthly subscription based on the number of users, transactions, and features
• Charges per transaction (varies on payment method and currency)
• Implementation fee for onboarding and integration

Custom pricing plans can be created for companies with specific needs or high transaction volumes, to provide optimal value and support.

#3) BILL

BILL (formerly known as bill.com) is a leading cloud-based process automation platform for accounts payable and receivable. It simplifies and automates complex back-office operations for small and medium businesses. 

Founded in 2006, the platform offers a comprehensive suite of tools developed to streamline accounts payable and spend management processes. By providing an on-demand, seamless solution, BILL helps organizations better manage cash flow, leverage financial accuracy, and enhance the overall digital experience.

Features

• OCR technology with custom approval workflows and multiple payment methods
• Expense reporting with budget controls and real-time expense tracking
• Intuitive dashboard insights into pending payments and forecasting for future cash flow
• ERP and accounting platform integrations with QuickBooks, NetSuite, and Xero
• Data encryption, secure storage, and compliance with PCI DSS and SOX

Serviceable Market

BILL serves various industries and works best for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). This includes everything from a non-profit aiming to enhance financial transparency to a tech startup that needs a scalable solution.

Pricing

The subscription-based SaaS pricing model provides flexibility, functionality, and scalability for SMBs. The subscription plans are:

• Essentials: Basic plan for small businesses with core AP tools
• Team: Intermediate plan with additional features for scaling businesses
• Corporate: Advanced plan with comprehensive tools for larger companies
• Enterprise: Custom plan for large enterprises with specific touchpoints and high transaction volumes

#4) SAP Concur

SAP Concur is a comprehensive, cloud-based expense and AP management system designed to streamline and automate invoicing. As part of the SAP ecosystem, Concur seamlessly integrates with other SAP tools and offers powerful features that provide financial viability, compliance, and control. 

Founded in 1993, Concur has established itself as a leading provider in the expense management industry. The system helps companies worldwide reduce costs, optimize operations, and enhance business relationships.

Features

• Automated expense reporting captures and categorizes expenses from receipts and other transactions
• Supplier integration with airlines, hotels, and car rental companies for real-time options and pricing
• Automated invoice capture with OCR technology and three-way purchase order matching to route for approval
• Vendor management to streamline the onboarding and management of vendors
• Customizable reports with real-time insights to analyze expenses, travel spend, and vendor performance

Serviceable Market

SAP Concur serves a broad range of industries and businesses of various sizes. This includes everything from government agencies that need more robust financial tools to multinational enterprises looking for comprehensive expense management.

Pricing

SAP Concur offers a subscription-based pricing model specifically tailored to the needs and scale of the business. The subscription plans include:

• Standard: Basic plan for small to mid-sized companies with core expense and travel management tools
• Professional: Intermediate plan with extra features and capabilities for growing companies
• Enterprise: Advanced plan with comprehensive tools and custom options for large enterprises
• Custom Plans: Tailored solutions for organizations with unique requirements or high transaction volumes

#5) MineralTree

MineralTree is an end-to-end AP automation solution designed to optimize and simplify accounting processes for small and medium businesses. Founded in 2010, the AP management system automates everything from invoice capture to approval workflows and payment execution. 

MineralTree helps to reduce errors, improve efficiency, and enhance financial control. By seamlessly integrating with popular ERP and accounting systems, it enables companies to tie up financial operations and ensure compliance with industry standards.

Features

• Secure payment processing with payment scheduling and multiple payment methods
• Automated invoice capture using OCR and machine learning to extract data
• Vendor enablement with assisted onboarding and a self-service portal
• Real-time reporting with an interactive dashboard for insight into spend management
• ERP and accounting software integration with API access and custom connectivity

Serviceable Market

MineralTree caters to a diverse range of industries and is particularly well-suited for small to medium businesses (SMBs). This includes everything from consulting firms looking to manage vendor payments to healthcare providers seeking to improve payment accuracy.

Pricing

MineralTree offers a subscription-based pricing model designed to provide scalability and flexibility for SMBs. The subscription pricing plans are:

• Standard Plan: Basic plan for small businesses with core AP features
• Professional Plan: Intermediate plan with additional features and capabilities for growing companies
• Enterprise Plan: Advanced plan with comprehensive tools and customization options for larger enterprises
• Custom Plans: Tailored solutions for organizations with unique requirements or higher transaction volumes

Tipalti vs Quadient

Tipalti and Quadient serve different niches within the financial solutions landscape, yet both offer robust automation to streamline complex processes and attentive customer support. 

Tipalti focuses on automating AP and global payment processing, catering primarily to finance teams looking for efficient, omnichannel payment management. 

In contrast, Quadient AP does not offer a specialized focus on finance automation solutions like Tipalti, but it does offer simplified automation, like invoice process automation, PO automation, and payments automation.

What Does Tipalti Do?

Tipalti is an end-to-end finance automation solution that addresses everything from procurement and PO management to supplier onboarding, invoice processing, employee expenses, global payments, compliance, and reconciliation. 

Experience the true benefits of accounts payable automation with a solution offering tax and regulatory compliance, self-billing, supplier payment status communications, fraud detection, and reporting capabilities.

Tipalti’s advanced global capabilities include multi-entity AP, multi-FX (intercompany bank transfers), and FX-hedging. The system seamlessly integrates with major ERP and accounting brands (including NetSuite, Xero, Sage, and Quickbooks). It effortlessly syncs with subsidiary GLs, ensuring current payables data and accelerating financial close by more than 25%.

Tipalti Capabilities Overview

Tipalti automates expenses, PO and supplier management, invoice processing, payments, reconciliation, and more. By leveraging advanced technology, Tipalti helps businesses improve efficiency, reduce manual workload, ensure compliance, and scale their financial operations effectively. Key capabilities include:

Integrated Procurement

Tipalti streamlines company purchases, reducing AP processing times and helping to curb spend. User-friendly, guided requisition templates improve adoptions and accuracy with fast implementation and time-to-value. The system integrates with Slack to speed up the approval process and provides a contract interface to quickly search contracts and terms.

Comprehensive Expense Management

Automated expense policies help to minimize fraud, ensure compliance, and enhance the customer experience. Tipalti provides a mobile app for quick and easy expense filing by employees and approvals by managers. Make global reimbursements by leveraging Tipalti’s payment infrastructure and automatically reconciling expense transactions to gain visibility.

Smart Invoice Processing

Tipalti extracts data from invoices using optical character recognition (OCR) and machine learning (ML), minimizing manual data entry. Customizable approvals allow companies to configure workflows to match specific needs, ensuring timely and accurate invoice approvals. Two-way and three-way PO matching automatically matches invoices with purchase orders and delivery receipts to prevent discrepancies and fraud.

Streamlined Global Payments

The Tipalti suite of solutions supports payments in 120+ currencies across 190 countries, enabling seamless global transactions. It offers a variety of payment methods, including ACH, wire transfers, PayPal, prepaid debit cards, checks, and more. The platform also enables companies to schedule payments to optimize cash flow and ensure timely disbursements.

Intuitive Supplier Portal

Another convenient feature Tipalti offers is a self-service supplier portal where vendors can submit information, manage their profiles, track payment status, and communicate with AP teams. This serves as a primary contact center, providing real-time visibility into payment status, cash flow, and financial health through detailed reporting and analytics.

Complex Tax Compliance

Tipalti has automated tax filing for 1099 and 1042-S forms, ensuring compliance with IRS requirements. It supports VAT compliance in multiple jurisdictions, helping companies effectively manage international tax obligations. Tipalti also ensures adherence to global regulatory standards such as GDPR, OFAC, and AML, safeguarding against financial and legal risks.

Additional Features

• Automated reconciliation with bank statements and accounting records
• Data encryption to protect sensitive financial data and ensure secure transmissions
• Compliance monitoring with regulatory requirements, reducing the risk of penalties
• API access for custom integrations and enhanced connectivity with other systems
• ERP integrations and other accounting tools like QuickBooks, Xero, and MS Dynamics

Tipalti Price Range

Tipalti offers custom pricing based on your company’s size, the number of transactions processed, and the specific features and modules required. The pricing model typically includes a combination of monthly subscription fees and transaction fees. 

For a precise quote, companies can contact Tipalti and request a personalized demo to understand how the pricing applies to their specific needs. Prices start from a few hundred dollars monthly for small businesses and scale up significantly for larger enterprises.

What Does Quadient Do?

Quadient AP specializes in simple AP automation and expense management. A business can reduce costs and eliminate 80% of data entry with automatic header and line item data capture.

The Quadient suite of solutions aims to streamline invoice processing, PO automation, and vendor payments. It empowers accounting teams with end-to-end, simplified automation and seamless integrations.  

The system also offers comprehensive dashboards for faster, collaborative invoice handling and visibility into outstanding payments.

Quadient AP Capabilities Overview

Quadient offers a suite of AP solutions that minimize repetitive manual tasks while increasing accuracy and security. Features range from AI-powered data entry to payments automation and expense management. 

Here are some of the accounting capabilities Quadient offers:

Invoice Process Automation

Quadient helps a business streamline invoice approval management and process invoices up to 9x times faster. It also provides an accurate, real-time report of monthly accrual, improving visibility into invoices as soon as they’re received. A company can simplify audits, save time with digital invoice storage, and set up custom approval channels to reduce risks.

Smart Data Capture

Quadient AP enters your invoice header data with up to 99% accuracy. It offers a GL smart coding feature that codes invoices in one click (based on what was previously entered for similar invoices).

Automate Expense Management

Quadient helps a business replace spreadsheets and inaccurate forecasts with real-time expense management for its AP workflow. Having employees upload receipts and create expense reports from anywhere (via a web browser or a mobile app) allows an organization to gain visibility into spending sooner quickly.

Robust Approval Channels

The Quadient solution helps businesses create robust approval channels to ensure compliance with expense policies. By giving managers mobile access to approvals, you can speed up approvals and reimbursements and reduce back-and-forth questions and delays.

Optimize Payment Processing

Using Quadients payments features, a business can save time, increase control, and eliminate duplicate payments. The system helps a company control spending and establishes a reliable and transparent approval process for vendor payments. You can also look up the status of payments at any time.

Purchase Order

Quadient helps a business improve control and insight over planned spending and simplifies the purchase order process. It streamlines budgetary control, enabling a company to track committed spend with automated purchase orders. You can also speed up approvals and reconciliation with 2 or 3-way PO matching.

Additional Features

• One-to-one reconciliation from your accounting system to your bank account
• Instantly generate payments batch and auto-match invoices and POs
• Set and manage spending limits by department, project, or vendor
• Create purchase requisitions directly in Quadient AP, automating the approval process
• Custom integrations with top brands like Microsoft Dynamics, Sage, and QuickBooks

Price Range

Quadient’s pricing varies significantly based on a business’s size, the complexity of the solution, and the specific features required. 

Features of Tipalti vs. Quadient

How to Pick the Best Solution for Your Needs

When comparing advanced accounts payable solutions, identify your core business needs, whether streamlining AP and global payments (Tipalti) or enhancing customer success with a lower price point (Quadient). Assess each solution’s features, scalability, and integration capabilities to ensure they align with your operational goals.

Consider factors such as ease of use, customer support, and total cost of ownership to make the most informed decision.

When to Choose Tipalti

You are looking for a comprehensive Accounts Payable solution that offers end-to-end services.

While Quadient does provide AP tools, it does not primarily focus on finance. In contrast, Tipalti’s main offering is finance automation, with a connected suite of solutions that address AP challenges. Many of Quadient’s offerings are partnered in, and their strategy is more piecemeal, with bolt-on acquisitions. If you want a software solution where you can hit the ground running, Tipalti is the best choice.

You need an AP solution that can quickly grow with your business.

Tipalti is designed to grow with your company, whereas, with Quadient, you must pursue additional tools outside the brand for a full suite of solutions. Tipalti delivers end-to-end payables features that are purpose-built to handle the evolving needs of your business. 

Quadient’s solutions may be appropriate for small businesses but can be quickly outgrown as your needs evolve in scale and complexity. You cannot customize tools for supplier onboarding or tax workflows, and there are limited global payment capabilities.

You need a connected suite of tools that provides end-to-end solutions.

While Tipalti offers features for procurement, expense management, and reconciliation, Quadient focuses on payment processing alone. Tipalti provides a white-label, self-service supplier portal with 26,000+ validation rules to reduce payment errors by up to 66%. Quadient only provides vendor management through ERPs or other payment partners.

Tipalti also offers comprehensive, KPMG-approved tax compliance, including digital form capture and content management, tax prep reports, and withholdings calculations. Quadient does not provide tax features.

When to Choose Quadient

You require niche invoice processing tools.

Quadient AP offers niche invoice processing features, such as invoice splitting (multiple invoices in a single file). If your business has an invoice processing point solution need, Quadient may be a good choice. 

However, Tipalti offers a complete invoice processing solution that reduces workloads by up to 80%. A company should look at the maturity of the OCR and managed services features of Tipalti vs. the newly added line-level capability and the lack of managed services offered at Quadient AP.

You need an Accounts Receivable solution (in addition to Accounts Payable).

Quadient offers an accounts receivable solution through a third party called YayPay. A business can automate its accounts receivable and start collecting cash faster with a solution tailor-made for B2B finance teams.

You use Sage ERPs.

Quadient specializes in Sage integrations, including Sage 50, 100, and 300. In comparison, Tipalti offers all those integrations, plus it syncs vendor records to ERPs. Quadient cannot do the same, as they do not offer self-service onboarding or supplier management.

What Customers Are Saying

I can’t imagine what our AP process would look like without Tipalti. We don’t want our team to enter data—we want them to analyze data.

~Kevin Crowley, Accounting Manager, Therabody

With Tipalti, we’re able to scale with automation. It’s nice to have everything in one place. I can simply send vendors Tipalti invites, and they onboard themselves.

~Myles Dolatre, Accounting Manager, Influential

Tipalti provides one central hub—suppliers can provide W-8s and W-9s and their preferred payment. I no longer have to chase down documents.

~Andrew Jenks, Senior Accounting Manager, Lucidworks

Summing It Up

Ultimately, a company’s specific needs and goals determine whether to choose between Tipalti, Quadient, and the top five competitors. 

If your primary focus is on comprehensive accounts payable automation with intuitive global payment capabilities, Tipalti offers an integrated solution designed to quickly scale with your business. 

On the other hand, if you seek to enhance customer communications, mailing operations, and business process automation, Quadient offers a diverse suite of tools that might serve you better.

It’s important to carefully evaluate each provider’s features, pricing, and support to ensure you select the solution that best meets operational requirements and strategic objectives.

Tipalti and Quadient both hold strong market positions and unique strengths, making them leaders in their respective niches. By understanding each solution’s distinct capabilities and considering factors like ease of integration, scalability, and price, you can make an informed decision that drives efficiency, compliance, and growth for years to come. 

Book a demo with our specialists today to explore how Tipalti can meet your specific goals.